“With an old time, an old host and an old lead story [on the Diana inquest], the resurrected News at Ten needed something to reassure its audience they had not suffered an accident and ended up in a journalistic version of Life on Mars, trapped a decade back.”

Andrew Billen, writing in the Times, said the “biggest coup” for News at Ten was its Antarctic glacier report from Bill Neely (pictured), which he called “a beautiful set piece”.

“It was just a pity the reporter was keener to explain how he got there than what was going on with global warning,” Billen added.

Billen found it “ever so slightly thrilling” to watch the familiar sign offs on News at Ten but predicted that when a big story breaks, viewers will return to BBC.

In the Telegraph, Andrew Pettie says is scathing about the selection of the first item. The lead interview, with Hasnat Khan about his relationship with Princess Diana, was “something of an embarrassment” after all the fanfare, he argues.

The interview “may well have been an exclusive, and an undoubted ratings-grabber, but this was hardly a news event of global significance”.

It was in sharp contrast, he says, with the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News, which lead with John Simpson reporting undercover from Zimbabwe. But after thsi “inauspicious start”, Pettie says, the remaining programem was “punchily presented”.

“There’s not much not to like here – which isn’t to damn with faint praise, but simply to point out that with news viewers the less you can do to drive them away, the more will stay. But like battery chickens, the odd surprise is good for them.”